A Virtual Universe (VU) is a computer-based simulated world or environment; other terms for VU's include metaverses, “3-D Internet” and Virtual World, and VU will be understood to represent any of these environments. Users inhabit and traverse a VU, and interact with other VU users through the use of an avatar, a graphical representation of the user often taking the form of a cartoon-like human though any graphic image may be utilized. In order to participate within or inhabit a VU a user creates an agent which functions as the user's account, and upon which the user builds an avatar tied to an inventory of assets the user owns in the VU and associated with the agent.
VU assets, avatars, the VU environment, and anything presented to a user as visual information comprise Universally Unique Identifiers (UUID's) tied to geometric data distributed to users as textual coordinates, textures distributed to users as graphics files (in some examples as a JPEG2000 file) and effects data rendered by the user's client computer according to the user's preferences and user's computer system device capabilities. Many VU's are represented using three dimensional (3-D) graphics and landscapes and are populated by many thousands of users or “residents,” often resembling the real world or fantasy/fictional worlds in terms of physics, houses, landscapes and in interpersonal communications with other users.
Large robust VU's and massively multiplayer online games, such as for example Second Life® (SECOND LIFE is a trademark of Linden Research, Inc. in the United States and/or other countries), Entropia Universe™ (ENTROPIA UNIVERSE is a registered trademark of MindArk PE AB in the United States, other countries, or both), The Sims Online™ (THE SIMS ONLINE is a trademark of Electronic Arts, Inc in the United States, other countries, or both), and There™ (THERE is a trademark of Makena Technologies, Inc. in the United States, other countries, or both) render and display detailed, large and complex graphic environments within which users may travel and participate as if a character in an expressionistic or fantastical fictional world or within a realistic or representational approximation of real life.
VU's are also commonly defined with respect to VU regions, virtual areas of land within the VU typically residing on a single server, with each region amenable to provision and management by a one or more participating providers. The size and complexity and variety of resources found in a VU are related to the number of providers participating and hosting regions through server hosting. And the success of a VU may depend upon attracting users and keeping them engaged and participating in the VU environment, thereby adding value to the providers who bear the cost in providing VU region content and services (and correspondingly expect an appropriate level of multiple-user engagement as a return on their investment), as well as for other users who wish to engage many others in a large virtual community. For example an informational or service-related region managed by a governmental or non-profit organization may desire or expect a given level of VU user engagement and participation, and commercial region providers may desire to engage in a given level of commercial transactions (e.g. sales) or achieve a level of marketing exposure among VU users.
VU users typically identify and recognize other user avatars in business and social interactions by recognition of avatar visual aspects such as character facial features, height, clothing, skin color and tone, body girth, etc, in some respects as people in real life recognize other people. More particularly, real world people and VU avatars may be readily distinguished by distinctive features or feature combinations unique to the person or avatar, and thus notorious or previously met avatars may be easily identified in subsequent social interactions. However, in contrast to the real world, virtual world users have the ability to easily and drastically change their avatar attributes. In many VU applications a user can rapidly change avatar attributes generally held constant in real people such as height, facial features, skin color or ethnicity, or may even replace an avatar character with another entirely different character (for example replacing a human with a dragon), and such changes may be effected multiple times through many avatar iterations. Though such changes may be desirable for enhancing user enjoyment, they may cause problems in interactions with other users, sometimes making subsequent recognition of a user represented by the altered avatar impossible. For example, a sale or other revenue generation opportunity may be missed through lack of customer recognition, perhaps ignoring or inappropriately engaging an avatar of a key customer, partner or associate, one who would have received differentiated treatment had they been able to recognize the user through his avatar. In social situations, missed opportunities to collaborate and interact can similarly be missed because of a lack of recognition of a changed avatar. Additionally, in a gaming environment missed opportunities to create quest groups, clans, or other similar parties can occur because other appropriate and geographically close avatars were not recognizable.
Identity confusion from changing avatar appearances is addressed in some prior art VU application environments by displaying a static character or user name or identification (ID) in a textual display associated with an avatar, for example as a text name/ID constantly displayed as floating above the head of the avatar, wherein the name remains unchanged through any avatar appearance alterations. Some VU environments also allow a user to maintain a “friends” list which enables a user to add other users to a personal list, wherein the list may be used to find added users presently active in the VU by showing the status of listed users (e.g. off-line, on-line, temporarily away, etc.) and even their location in the VU if presently active, for example providing a text description of the land or region another active user's avatar is occupying and/or a locator beacon on a map showing their location.
However, such solutions are deficient in a number of respects. In one aspect these text-based solutions don't enable a VU user to recognize other VU users through outward avatar appearance, as they would recognize a person in the real world, requiring instead the user to read and accurately process text information associated with a user avatar in order to identify the user. Visual appearance is often the best reminder of known avatar identity, and sometimes the only sufficient indicator in the case of people who have difficulty in remembering names but more easily recall a face or other unique visual characteristic; thus without visual consistency avatar recognition may fail from text name or ID information alone. Moreover, the display of floating names/ID detracts from the three-dimensional alternate world experience of the VU environment, reminding the user that he is engaging a two-dimensional computer-interface and thus interfering with a user's immersion into the VU world. Name/ID displays may also be difficult to correctly or efficiently display, resulting in a cluttered display environment when there are many avatars displayed at once, or even display failures caused by overlapping names in the case of avatars standing next to each other.
In another aspect the appearance of a user avatar does not generally reveal the experience or history of the associated user, nor does an object reveal its historic values and attributes. Appearances may be manipulated or altered for deceptive reasons. For example, an experienced gamer may choose a beginner or basic character avatar or evince novice movements, responses or other behaviors in order to conceal his true experience and abilities and thereby gain advantage over other users. Users may also distance themselves from prior bad actions and reputations by starting over with new avatars, perhaps deceiving the same users again in subsequent business engagements. The value of an object may be hard to determine without knowledge of prior history of the object, and problems arise in accurately assessing the trustworthiness of representations made about the history of the object by others relevant to valuing the object.